Football is Done: Time to Work

Hey guys. My football season ended last Friday, we went 5-4, no playoffs. This being said I want to get ready, for hopefully college football. Im a 6’3 260 pound Defensive Tackle. I need to increase my overall strength and increase my speed. Any thoughts?

im thinking of going back DeFranco’s but thing is his program doesnt have power cleans. And he focus on the squat once a week. My legs are my most dominant body part and id like to squat over 500. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

P.s I need to increase LBM as well

If you’re serious about playing college ball, I’d find a good strength coach to help you out.

From where you are now, what you want to do, and where you want to be, DeFranco’s is the best choice for you. Power cleans aren’t as necessary as many people think, and if done correctly, dynamic squats are just as effective and done more easily. Just my .02

Ah. We made playoffs so i hopefully have a few weeks left, but I have to say i’m anxious for it to be over so i can start lifting again. In that respect, I envy you.

Eic as good as that sounds 1. I dont know where 2.money is tight.

Blaze enjoy your last games maybe your last one to man. If your a senior youll understand the hurt that comes along with knowing youll never play high school football again. Best of luck to you and your team.

if you just ended your senior year a lot of it is going to be based of your performance this this year and what level of high school football you played in. enless your planning on being a walk on or something
I would agree that dynamic squat should be more then good enough if you could get a 650 box squat or so you will see a world of a difference in your power from your stance

Before my Senior year started I had a 500 squat. So I think I could push close to 600. Another question I have is how long will it take me to get back to what I was. I havent lifted in about 9 weeks.

If you’re close to Squatting 500, then you’re strong enough to do the Normal Westside-Style Template: Bands, Chains, Speed Squats, all that Jazz.

If you want to do Cleans, you can do them as your Max Effort Lower Body Exercise.

Week 1: Power Clean or Full Squat Clean
Week 2: High Box Squat
Week 3: Deadlift
Week 4: Front Squat
Week 5: Rack Deadlift
Week 6: Manta Ray Low Box Squat

How’s that for a Max Effort Exercise Cycle?

A Power Clean done as a Max Effort Movement isn’t going to be very taxing in comparison to Heavy Squatting and Deadlifting, so doing a second Heavy Barbell Exercise after hitting a Max or a 3RM on Cleans would be a good idea - you could do a heavy 3-5RM on Platform Deadlifts or something.

[quote]MarineStrong_Zm wrote:
Before my Senior year started I had a 500 squat. So I think I could push close to 600. Another question I have is how long will it take me to get back to what I was. I havent lifted in about 9 weeks.[/quote]

Maybe just 2 weeks or less. Maybe a month.

if you want to do cleans do them on lower body DE - whcih I dont think DeFranco has, since he counts running as your DE work, so just put it in with the lower body workout. You can absolutely push your squat up only squatting once a week. Look at what you did htat got you to where you are now, have faith in whatever system that was. Dance with what brung ya

[quote]MarineStrong_Zm wrote:
Before my Senior year started I had a 500 squat. So I think I could push close to 600. Another question I have is how long will it take me to get back to what I was. I havent lifted in about 9 weeks.[/quote]

go to defrancotraining.com very good website for athletes man. You don’t have to work out with him directly to reap the benefits of his template. oh and right off the bat, one thing he advocates is to definitely not completely drop training during the season, that’s kind of stupid. You work up all through the offseason to have it go away during the season.

thank you everyone for your responses. And Fighting scott West Side does sound like alot of fun I just dont know where to find it. Also where would I get bands and stuff?

[quote]MarineStrong_Zm wrote:
thank you everyone for your responses. And Fighting scott West Side does sound like alot of fun I just dont know where to find it. Also where would I get bands and stuff?[/quote]

http://www.powerliftinguk.com/showthread.php?t=2718

Basic westside template by Jim Wendler (For somse reason the original file on elitefts didn’t work, hence the link). It’s a very straightforward article about setting up a program based on the principles of Westside training. It’s not written in stone, so you can make a few adjustments to your taste (like rep-set ranges, focus on certain movements, etc.). As long as you get your ME and DE work in. It works like a charm. But WS4SB isn’t too shabby either ;p

I don’t get it, what’s everyone’s obession with westside? There are tons of other stuff that works. You want to increase your squat and power clean? Then do those!
personally, I’m a big fan of temporary overreaching, smolov like programs. I’ve seen it work with a lot of people. Just look up smolov, or super acummulation program by Poliquin. As a matter of fact, look up anything by Poliquin, just a few suggestions…

Oh, dynamic effort squats don’t come near the explosion required for a power clean…but you gotta do em right.

[quote]arnoud verschoor wrote:

Oh, dynamic effort squats don’t come near the explosion required for a power clean…but you gotta do em right.[/quote]

Not hating or anything, just saying. If someone does a proper DE box squat with appropriate weight and explosion, then A) it will be just as explosive; and B) it will probably be more of a load on the body than a weight used on an Oly lift.

Brian Witherspoon, trained by Defranco himself, one of the fastest players in the nfl at the moment.Never completed a single power clean when trained by Defranco, oh he did the 40 in an official 4.29.

Don’t forget this DeFrancosTraining.com - 4.16 40 Yard Dash!!! - YouTube.

So maybe explosive squats can do the trick.

And Poliquins super accumalation- planned overtraining. I dont think you could name 1 football player who has done that can you?

[quote]OooahhhCANTONA wrote:
Brian Witherspoon, trained by Defranco himself, one of the fastest players in the nfl at the moment.Never completed a single power clean when trained by Defranco, oh he did the 40 in an official 4.29.

Don’t forget this DeFrancosTraining.com - 4.16 40 Yard Dash!!! - YouTube.

So maybe explosive squats can do the trick.[/quote]

Poliquin has trained a lot of american football players, Poliquin doesn’t give a lot of info about his clients, so I couldn’t possibly tell you if someone did the accumulation program. Poliquin has trained David Boston, who ran a 4.2 or lower at 260 lbs, he did a lot of olympic lifts. I’m not saying people can’t get faster without olympic lifts (of course they can), but if you want to turn it into a pissing match…Well, with all the things Defranco did, how can you possibly tell it was because of the explosive squats?
And this is turning into a whole other discussion, partly because of me, but the kid asked for good strength training protocols, so I gave him a few.

And to make my point, compare this:

to this:

With a power clean, you can’t afford to go slow. For the sake of pure explosion, power cleans require more explosiveness than DE squats, my opinion. If power cleans are absolutely required for an athlete? No, not necessary, but they can be helpful.

[quote]Kulturkampf wrote:
arnoud verschoor wrote:

Oh, dynamic effort squats don’t come near the explosion required for a power clean…but you gotta do em right.

Not hating or anything, just saying. If someone does a proper DE box squat with appropriate weight and explosion, then A) it will be just as explosive; and B) it will probably be more of a load on the body than a weight used on an Oly lift.[/quote]

Nah man, you’re not hating. Maybe you’re right, that’s always up for debate, but I think a power clean requires more pure explosion than a DE squat.